Weight Loss Challenge Ideas

Whether you have decided to start your own weight loss challenge or you have decided to have a weight loss challenge with your family, friends or office group; you now have to come up with some good weight loss challenge ideas that will be fun and keep everybody interested.

One of the first things to consider when designing your contest ideas is to know – who is competing?

Although they do show it on TV, the average overweight person probably shouldn’t hit the bricks with the same intensity the prime-time weight loss contestants. Keep in mind the contestants on shows like The Biggest Loser are monitored closely by doctors – 24/7.

Which brings us to the ever popular waver *check with your medical practitioner before beginning a new weight loss program*

Great Weight Loss Challenge Ideas

Organize activities that can be for the day like fitness games as a scavenger hunt that can take people all over the place looking for specific things. And they must do it by foot or bicycle to really get the cardio benefit.

Other competition ideas can be weekly or on a monthly basis too. How about having a healthy lunch week, or a walk week, armed and dangerous, desert week, water week, or a five week pyramid. How about a lunch out week, journal week, home movie week, double time, dollars and sense week?

Here are some ideas explained.

Five Week Pyramid

This is dissecting the mysteries of the food pyramid. Invite in a nutritionist or dietitian from your local hospital or YMCA (it should be quite inexpensive or most likely free) to have a “Lunch and Learn”. The food pyramid seems a little confusing to most people because there really is a lot to it. With what you learn you can then have your monthly competition divide into weeks that meet the Food Pyramid recommended health standard.

Every day for one week ensure you have the correct number of proper portions for your weight goal. Grain Week, Protein Week, Dairy Week, Vegetable Week, and Fruit Week.

By the end of the five weeks you will be assured you know how the food pyramid works and will be into a habit of good food choices and portions.

Walk Week

Make it everyone’s goal to hit their 10,000 steps each day this week. Each morning when you come into work you get your pedometer from your team captain and turn it in at the end of the work day. Walking for weight loss is popular and easy to do.

A person who wears a pedometer will walk almost 2000 steps more than people who don’t wear a pedometer, this is compared to people who do habitually walk for fitness.

~Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine

Armed and Dangerous

If you have been an office worker for a long time you don’t use your arm strength on a daily basis. This week your groups concentrate in doing at least one arm exercise each day to tone and strengthen. It might just be your arm’s but be assured that arm movement also burns calories.

Journal Week

The power of words. Did you know your chance of succeeding with your weight loss and fitness goals increase by 1000% just by keeping and reviewing and accurate journal? Keep a journal of your week. Put in a food diary, get to know the calories in the portions of the foods you eat. Monitor your thoughts and keep track of your workouts.

Lunch Out Week

Now you are at the point where you can take what you learned from your Food Pyramid and apply it to restaurants. Pick a different restaurant each day for the week and see how well you all do making the healthier choices. If you still are unsure, invite your nutritionist along with you.

CLICK HERE - For more info on the Biggest Loser Club

Dollars and Sense Week
Losing weight is all about the math. Calories in and calories out. Knowledge is the true power here so test your knowledge and review what you used to eat because of what you thought was cheap and affordable. Then assign the difference in calories a penalty of .10c.

For example the price of a Big Mac and a 6″ Roast Beef sub at Subway are around the same price, but a Big Mac is 576 calories and the Sub is 290. The difference is 286 calories or $2.86 in penalty.

Healthy Lunch Week

You can then have a Healthy Lunch Week where each of you takes turns designing and bringing in to work a healthy lunch for your team mates.

Home Movie Week

Make your own fitness or cooking videos for the use of all. Video journal what you are learning and some tips you can pass on to the group. Everyone loves to learn new things.

Double Time

This is a big cardio challenge. Have you ever heard of interval training? Come up with some short exercise programs that you can do as a team that will burn double the calories in half the time. This might be a great week to hire a trainer to come to your office.

This should be a good list to get you started with ideas for the weight loss competition event challenges. Get your groups together to come up with some more ideas or check out our fitness games for more weight loss challenge ideas.

About Cynthia Carpenter

Welcome! I'm Cynthia Carpenter - a once-upon-a-time sloth who smoked for over 20 years and ate crap food most of my life. I didn't know much about fitness and what I read was conflicting. One source would say one thing and then I would read something completely different.

Finally fed-up with being so unhealthy I began a quest to figure out how to drop the saggy fat and put the smoke out once and for all. It didn't happen until I was 43 but I did it and it stuck.

Now at 52 there are a whole new set of issues to deal with and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle and fit it into the work day is always a challenge. It is through this website I share some of my best ideas in hopes that it will be of benefit to you too so you can achieve your own health and fitness goals.